“The Royal Family” reminiscent of the Barrymore clan

Just because a monarch does not rule the United States does not mean there are no royals among us. In the kingdom of media, celebrities reign supreme, and playwrights George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber certainly kept this in mind when writing “The Royal Family.” “The Royal Family”

Sept. 30 to Oct. 31

O’Reilly Theater

Tickets: $35.75-$60.75, $15.75 for students and anyone 26 and under

Just because a monarch does not rule the United States does not mean there are no royals among us. In the kingdom of media, celebrities reign supreme, and playwrights George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber certainly kept this in mind when writing “The Royal Family.”

The play, currently produced at O’Reilly by the Pittsburgh Public Theater, is a period piece set in the roaring ’20s. It acquaints the audiences with an eccentric, high-society family by the name of Cavendish. The fictional clan of actors, including siblings Julie and Tony and their mother Fanny, is loosely based on the personalities present in the legendary Barrymore family, of which Drew Barrymore is a member. To balance out the insanity, a number of employees including Della the maid are included as witnesses and enablers of the Cavendish family’s antics.

Actress Zeva Barzell portrays Della and is enjoying her work in front of, and behind, the curtain. Speaking about the positive energy of the cast during rehearsals, she said that everyone involved wants the show to succeed. She has complete confidence that it will.

Each act of the play begins with Barzell’s character making an entrance. Barzell is a veteran of musical theatre, having played such immortal roles as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun and Miss Hannigan in Annie, but finds the transition from musicals to plays without singing to be smooth. She explains that the difference is easy for her: In one there are songs and dancing and in the other there is not.

“It keeps everything balanced for me. I think that it calls on different skills, but in both a musical and a play there has to be complete truth and honesty from the characters,” she said.

“The Royal Family” has a special connection with the city of Pittsburgh because one of its writers, Kaufman, was born in the Steel City. Aside from this play, he is best known for the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical “Guys and Dolls.” In addition to Ferber, his collaborators include Moss Hart on “You Can’t Take It With You” and the five Marx brothers who starred in his works “The Cocoanuts” and “A Night at the Opera.”

The other writer of “The Royal Family,” Ferber, received a Pulitzer prize for her book “So Big.” Her novels “Show Boat” and “Giant” are more famous for the adaptations that they inspired. “Show Boat” was made into a musical of the same name by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, and “Giant” was made into a film of the same name starring Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean.

The actors’ work would be incomplete without the vision of director Ted Pappas. He brings to life each character in a new way, even if he has to do double duty for certain actors.

This is the case with co-star Tony Bingham. Fresh from his stint in last season’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” Bingham portrays two characters, prizefighter McDermott and Indian traveler Gunga. As McDermott, he gets to engage in an onstage swordfight. Because Bingham had prior experience with sword combat, his preparation for the action was very minimal and mainly involved time with the fight choreographer and director.

Both of Bingham’s characters interact with the Cavendish youth. For example, McDermott trains Julie to fight the way a stuntman would prepare a young starlet for an action movie in today’s business.

“The differentiation between characters is done with costume and we try to hide the fact that I am playing both characters,” Bingham said.

Despite all the fun and theatricality of this show, it has great substance. At nearly 90 years of age, it was revived on Broadway last season starring Rosemary Harris and Ana Gasteyer. This continuing relevance has a lot to do with the pop culture-centric society that exists today.

Whether it is the Barrymores or the Kardashians, America seems to be cycling through a bevy of famous families to idolize.

“It gives you more of an insight into this family’s life and their routines. As an audience member, you get to see the backstage stuff,” Bingham said.